Living Under The Moon Chapter 13

The next day and a half goes by without much trouble before you hear, “We have exited Equestrian borders, next stop; The Changeling Territory. The gala is serving oats, hay and honey” the voice of Flim speaks over the intercom.
--
The day continues, quietly, however soon the outside of you port window begins to grow ominously dark and scary.

Within hours you are finally in the changeling territory.  The ship lands at the desired location, and your ten man squad disembarks.
“And you’re certain no one will notice you two here?” you ask Flim and Flam as you glance to your crew standing outside at the mouth of a large cave.

“The Cloaking spell in the fabric should hold for the duration of the trip.” Flam tells you with a nod.

“We can always circle around to make sure no one is watching” Flim assures “and we always have the blast bucker prototypes should self defense be necessary.”

You nod at this information “we shouldn’t be more than half a day if necessary, if we’re gone any longer; leave, tell the princesses.”

The both of them salute.

You inhale deeply as you exit the control room of the ship, making your way to the exit, Ivory joining you mid way “you alright Anon?”

“To be absolutely honest” you pause looking around to make sure no one is looking, “Pretty terrified, what about you?”

“I’m not fond of caves….or darkness” she adds that second one on with a slight mumble, “But you’re here, and as long as you’re with us, everything will be okay. “

Something about that makes you smile “you are far too trusting in me, one day I’ll let you down”

“You saved me,” she answers to that bluntly. “I’ll trust you with my life”

You nod as you close your eyes a moment, inhaling a bit to get your bearings-

And Ivory kisses you; it’s a gentle kiss, nothing more, a soft, patient kiss, you slightly lean into it a bit before she pulls back “for good luck...”

You nod again, feeling a slight blush as you both look at each other, “For good luck” you echo her sentiment.

The both of you then walk out of the ship to meet Trixie, who had organized the group of ten. They look about as nervous as you feel.

You walk to the front and center, standing in front of the cave, its mouth making you feel positively puny. “Scary isn’t it?” It starts just like that. “The mouth of the monster; somewhere in there is the artifact necessary to keep the Sons of discord from bringing back chaos himself.” You say it as strong as you can, and then inhale “and I know we can succeed, not just because we’re trained for it, or because we’re the best…but because we’re friends. “ You look over the group “and there is an unbeatable magic in friendship, and knowing that, you can be sure we cannot lose!” you stomp your hoof down “So let’s do this.”

And then you began the march into the cave. The chatter amongst your squad was quiet though. “Everyone stay together, unicorns give us some light” you order as the light from outside is replaced by varying shades of magic.

Ivory and Trixie keep the back of the group as you lead.  The sound of water dripping from stalactites providing a slightly spooky ambience as the water drips to the stalagmites below them.

If you still had your toes, they’d probably be curled up from how nervous you were as your claustrophobia is threatening to show itself. You steel yourself as best as you can, for the sake of your team. But God damn it the cave keep getting narrower!

“Everyone keep close” you repeat again as you start to naturally form a line in the cave. The ceiling lowers more.

Hours of silence stretch out before you make it out of the small area. Met by a large chasm “Ivory where did they say this artifact was?”

“They said we’d know when we see it”

You sigh a bit “we live a charmed life.”

“Look!” Trixie point to a small glowing recess toward the bottom of the chasm

A collective groan from the group can be heard behind you “Alright. Unicorns, earth ponies, buddy up. Teleport and meet us all down there at that spot, anyone one without a unicorn partner find a Pegasus an do not split up anywhere between points.” You make one last look before jumping down, wings spreading to catch the air and pull you into a glide.

As short as it was, the flight actually made you feel somewhat better in this cave as the cramped muscles in your back relax and move with the flapping of the wings. You land with a light click against the wet stone of the floor, the glow of the entry way keeping the area illuminated.

Soon the squad had found their way back to you from the darker area’s “IS everyone ready?”

Again, collective affirmations, “good”
All fifteen of your troops began to follow back into the  area.

The lit path leads several minutes inward, the walls seem to glow as though created from crystal “How deep do you think we are?” you ask back to the closest guard behind you.

“Hundred or so feet perhaps?” the guard replied, “Can’t be too dangerously deep…”

You keep going, the walls reflecting like mirrors now as the light at the end of the tunnel keeps everything fairly lit up.

“Wouldn’t think they’d have crystals this far from the Crystal Kingdom” someone mumbles in the back

And soon the trail leads into a chamber.  The chamber was large with reflective walls. As your crew gather into the echoing chamber in the center you saw it, platform like pedestal that was centered in the room stood out like a bad original character.

“IS this the artifact?” you ask aloud as you approach it.

“Definitely; this is The Prisoners Platform. “ She states as she walks around “marked heavily with all the binding runes necessary to keep anyone trapped on it for as long as it is active.”

“Makes you wonder why The Princesses never used it in the first place”

Ivory steps beside you “He was the only threat at the time, perceivably, wasn’t necessary to use it when the only one capable of releasing him was himself.”

“Well, certainly isn’t the case now” you mumble a bit

“if I have anything to say it won’t “ You nearly jump as you turn to find Q and his generals standing at his side “Good afternoon my little ponies” his voice reeks of overly sweetness making you clench your teeth as if his tone itself gave you a toothache.

“I felt this was going too easily” you squint at him.

He hums a bit as few Sons of Discord walk in circling your group  of twenty “Now, if you  don’t mind Anon, We’d like to take what we came for and be on our way. “

A loud “HA” breaks past your lips as you take a ready stance “if you think you can just take it then you’re out of luck,”

That menacing laugh echoes in the chamber as Q suddenly teleports to you inches separating your face as you stare into his red and yellow eyes. “But then again, maybe you have to much luck” he grins a bit “in fact I’d say it’s a little unfair that you have twenty five guards to take on my ten sons”

Twenty five?!

You suddenly take a neutral stance curiously taking count of your guard.

You started with ten guards…oh god.

In perfect synch to your revelation at least the odd extra fifteen light up in a sickly green to reveal each and every one of them to be changeling drones that jump and attack your squad mates.

“Everyone defend yourself!” you suddenly turn, bucking Q’s direction, deftly making contact with air as he teleports to the top of the platform.
 You jump back, Trixie and ivory meeting you back to backs “What do we do sir? “ Ivory asks nervously.

Split second decision. Bearing back on your hunches you spins to Ivory and immediately smash your hooves right into her face, that same sickly glow exploding from her form as the reveal that she’s been replaced “I figured as much” you level your eyes to the drone, biting your lip to hold in the anger “Ivory would never be nervous, let alone refer to me as sir!” in that same moment you turn and smash your right hoof directly into Trixie “and I /know/ you aren’t Trixie!”

The Trixie you know isn’t Trixie lets out a growl that bubbles to a laugh as her horn elongates into a crooked black mockery of an unicorn horn, her body erupting with a disgusting black energy burst from here; hair lengthening, height growing, voice distorting as soon standing in her place is the queen herself, laughing as she takes joy in your anger “poor Anon, lost both his marefriends~” her tone is disgustingly playful.

You refuse to halt for a moment slamming your hooves into her again as you turn to Q, a blur of motion and smashing hoof sounds as you literally punch and buck your way through the crowd of changelings. Head butting the cult leader after leaping onto the platform, getting him down to the floor as you smash your fetlocks into his left cheek “Where the fuck are they!”

The assault begets more laughter as he looks up “no need to get to destructive anon, they’re safe” he keeps his voice calm as it somehow still makes its way through the madness of ponies and changelings fighting

You slam your hoof down again holding it hard into his face “Where are they!”

Suddenly out of the corner of your eye blinks and a Trio of hooded Unicorns surround you “Motherfucker!” you hiss as you suddenly find yourself flung across the room into a wall by telekinesis.

You groan as you pull yourself up, charging back at the cultists aiming to get one last hit in on Q; the rage you feel screaming out of your lungs as you are thrown upward into the domed ceiling.

You get a feeling of helplessness as you fall to the floor, watching your squad getting hammered from being so outnumbered.

You blinked, and as you blinked, in from nowhere, striking multiple Changelings before finding their way to your side and pulling you up to your hooves “Sorry we’re late, one of them had a teleport spell, put us somewhere deep inside the caves” Trixie tells you

“Yeah….we got to go…” you try to shake out what might be a concussion,

“Retreat!” Ivory yells as everyone starts running out of the cave, you pulling the rear as you punch a changeling trying to make chase.

“Take care Anon!” Q’s laughter echoes over the sounds of manic hoof steps the changelings on your tail as the squad runs
HAULING ASS, HAULING ASS!  You keep repeating this peculiar mantra somehow weaving into the cave the unicorns in your part disappearing in a light show of blinking color as you soon get out of the cave, everyone to your knowledge getting to the entrance “Everyone on the ship, Now!” You signal to the ship as it pulls down.

Trixie and Ivory blink in Trixie standing at the mouth of the cave.  The glowing eyes of changelings surging toward her

Whyyyyyy!?

And then you saw the glowing light of magic pulling down the opening of the cave; a loud crumbling of rocks echoing through the area, soon followed by the screeching of the changelings trapped behind it.

“Oh” you hadn’t even realized you’d held your breath to that moment.

Trixie jumps around with a large grin on her “I’m the T to the R to the I-X-I-E; ain’t noone casting magic quite like me I’m Trixie-licious.”

….”Get in the fucking ship now!”

The last of you all rush into the ship “Get every unicorn who knows the teleport spell to the control room; focus all your magic and put us as close to Canterlot as possible.” You demand the lieutenants.  “We may have delayed that group of changelings but we’re in their territory; hundreds more won’t be too far behind”

“Got it” they both salute turning to take to the assignment. You immediately turn to the port window in time to find a massive cloud of swarmed Changelings descending down from the mountain in a mass of ink black and glowing green eyes of death.

“Oh fudge “you mumble turning to get to the control room as you find everyone in a circle. You nervously work past them all standing at the window next to see the outside world, the swarm now, literally, on the ship the sounds of banging and punching on the metal surfaces.

Not good

You think you hear tearing of the zeppelin’s balloon.

Definitely not good.

You turn to the large circle of unicorns as the magic begins with Ivory and Trixie, the magic moving from their horns, branching out to the glowing horns of magic a multifaceted rainbow of magic glowing throughout the room.

The changelings are at the window, smashing at it. Pounding with their hooves the banging echoing into the room as the magic glow intensifies.
The Glass starts splintering, web ways of cracks emerging as the window threatens to break from the duress as suddenly-

You blink and find you, your ship, your crew and squad, safely sitting just outside of Canterlot, the peaceful castle sitting just in view.

Thank you sweet Lauren Faust